More than 1,000 marriages of convenience may have taken place in Ireland, as illegal immigrants bid to avoid deportation.‘‘There is strong evidence to suggest that substantial numbers of people are arranging marriages to circumvent the regulations and legislation,” Dermot Ahern, the new Minister for Justice, told an Oireachtas committee during a debate on new immigration legislation before the Dáil.
Ahern had been challenged by Pat Rabbitte, the Labour Party justice spokesman, on provisions of the new bill, which govern the rights of residence of non-Irish nationals who marry Irish or EU citizens. Currently, there is no automatic right of residence for such people.
‘‘Nobody wants to support the notion of bogus marriages,” said Rabbitte. ‘‘However, we have no evidence that this is anything but a drop in the ocean. It is inconsequential.”
However, Ahern rejected the suggestion that a small number of marriages were involved.
‘‘It has been suggested that marriages of convenience represent a drop in the ocean,” Ahern said.
‘‘That is not in line with the evidence available to those of us on this side of the table.
‘‘I suggest to Deputy Rabbitte that he have a word with some of the registrars throughout the country about this matter. If one reads the newspapers circulating among people from certain countries who are living in Ireland, one will see that this device is being used.”
Queries to the Department of Justice revealed that officials suspect that more than 1,000 such marriages may have taken place in Ireland.
According to a parliamentary question answered earlier this year by the former justice minister Brian Lenihan, the Immigration Service has ‘‘growing experience’’ of such marriages of convenience.
Applications for residence in Ireland on the basis of marriage to an EU citizen amounted to some 4,000, of which 1,200 (30 per cent) were from illegal immigrants - leading officials to suspect the marriage is entered to avoid deportation. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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